There are a number of proposed devices to assist a person in properly dispensing and tracking prescribed medication on a daily or hourly basis. The dispensing of medication is not normally a problem if there are only one or two medications to be taken daily or at different hours through the day, however the problem becomes more critical as the number of different medications increases. In addition, certain users may not be capable of, or have difficulty in, reliably dispensing medication. Errors causing over or under medication conditions are responsible for thousand of preventable deaths each year.
There have been various solutions proposed for managing medication including large pill dispensing boxes having a number of cavities corresponding to morning, noon and dinner and bedtime. Some of these systems are designed for a seven day period. These systems require the user or a trusted individual to effectively dispense multiple medications into each cavity corresponding to a particular day and time.
Other systems have been proposed that control the dispensing of the medication. U.S. Pat. No. 6,848,593 discloses a radial dispensing apparatus that uses portable medication cartridges. These cartridges are rotated and dispense a particular medication at a particular angular position. With this system each medication must be prepackaged in a standardized configuration for loading into the device.
There are also a number of other devices that are designed to control the dispensing of medication. Many of these devices are provided with alarms that are activated when the medication is not removed from the device at the appropriate time. In this way, an alarm or warning signal is provided to the user that a particular medication is available for dispensing and should be taken. A number of these devices also communicate with a remote computer using a telephone, internet or other communication method and can provide additional warnings or messages to third parties of potential medication irregularities.
There remains a need for an effective medication dispenser that operates in a manner that is convenient to the end user while ensuring the prescribed medication is made available to the person on a daily basis. This need continues to increase and become more critical as the number of senior citizens maintaining an independent lifestyle continues to grow.